There is a huge difference between what you think and what you do. Between these two premises, libertarians seem to lose the grip and momentum in the public sphere.
In a socialist-republic like India, libertarians do not constitute more than 0.00001% of the population. That’s the travesty of today’s civilisation. Among them, intellectual dishonesty divides the libertarians on the political spectrum. That’s fair. They are not organised like communist toadies or right-wing Modi trollers, and that is why they lack popularity. Academic sphere and media circles are yet to see the renowned ones, albeit some have written good books, podcasts and blogs, but “English” does not help much in mosaic India.
Then, there are libertarians who believe Modi’s socialism is not saffronising communism. He is still minimising government and maximising governance, in their post-truth discourses. On the other hand, few “libertarian” organisations based in Delhi, Mumbai, and elsewhere, are still stuck with discussions in a cafe, socialistic activities, education/advocacy, graffiti-ing, etc., leaving a lesser impact on the macro sociology of public discourses. Those who dare to stay in blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and black markets are doing better, but their outreach does not transcend people’s perception towards heretical economics. A lot needs to be done.
The thinking against privacy, choice and consent commences at home, in Indian societies. The agents of socialisation, like families, schools, media, public laws and other institutional units do not seem to adore the axioms of free-thinking, scientific thinking, open thinking and critical reasoning, thus the burden of proof automatically falls on “libertarians” in cleaning up the cultural mess and the grand shit. Therefore, the scope of ‘Dalit Libertarianism’ finds no hope yet.
Actually, libertarians are not lazy. They are active, but more intellectually, in emotional India. It’s only when they organise to undo their egotism and arrogant tones, the people would love to listen to how government interventionism messes up the system and livelihood.
In #NewIndia, sadly, the public discourses are inured with plenty of logical fallacies. There are no debates, but simply arguments. The louder noise gets the TRP. Facts are not facts but data with agenda. Libertarians have contributed their intelligence in fact-checking and data-based-analysis, but their target audience is misologists, making them visibly irrelevant in the cacophony of nescience. No matter how strongly the ‘laissez-faire’ is talked about, in the end, libertarians have to, unfortunately, deal with the hopeless audience. Only if libertarians free could themselves from the echo-chamber of intellectual masturbation before refuting the “social contract”, that’d be great.